Charles J. Hynes

Charles J. Hynes, 2012

Charles Joseph Hynes (May 28, 1935) is the current district attorney of Kings County, New York (Brooklyn). A Democrat, Hynes was first elected to office in 1989 and is currently serving a sixth term.

Life and early career

Hynes was born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. Flatbush is a diverse neighborhood whose population according to 2000 U.S. Census, consists of 79.8% Black or African American, 14% Hispanic or Latino and 6.5% White. Hynes now resides in Breezy Point, New York, a gated community in the borough of Queens that according to the United States Census Bureau, is 99.2% white. According to an article in the New York Times, Hynes has faced criticism for living in an "in an apartheid village that no black can live in."

He attended St. Ann's Academy (now Archbishop Molloy High School) in Briarwood, Queens, and received both his bachelor's degree, in 1957, and his J.D. in 1961 from St. John's University in Jamaica, Queens. Hynes is married to Patricia L. Pennisi, a registered nurse. The couple has five children and sixteen grandchildren.

In 1963, Hynes began working for the Legal Aid Society as an associate attorney. He joined the Kings County District Attorney's Office in 1969, as an Assistant District Attorney. In 1971, Hynes was appointed as Chief of the Rackets Bureau, and was named First Assistant District Attorney in 1973.

In 1975, Governor Hugh Carey and Attorney General Louis Lefkowitz appointed Hynes as special state prosecutor for Nursing Homes, Health and Social Services, in response to a massive scandal in the state’s nursing home industry. Hynes' office launched a comprehensive attack on Medicaid fraud, and his Medicaid Fraud Control Unit eventually became a national model, cited in a report of the House Select Committee on Aging as the best in the country. Hynes testified before Congress in 1976, in favor of legislation establishing state fraud control units and providing federal funding. The legislation became law in 1977. Now, 48 states have Medicaid Fraud Control Units.

Hynes was appointed the 24th New York City Fire Commissioner by Mayor Edward I. Koch on November 5, 1980 upon the resignation of Augustus A. Beekman. Hynes served in that position until his resignation on October 22, 1982. He served as a Commissioner for the New York State Commission of Investigation between 1983 and 1985, by appointment of New York State Assembly Speaker Stanley Fink. In 1985, Governor Mario Cuomo appointed District Attorney Hynes as Special State Prosecutor for the New York City Criminal Justice System.

Hynes′ first major achievement as a head prosecutor would occur in 1987 when he was tasked with investigating the death of Michael Griffith, an African-American teenager who was set upon by a mob of white teens in Howard Beach, Queens. Hynes managed to secure three homicide convictions against the defendants, who would subsequently be sentenced to prison terms of varying lengths. He later published a book about the case.

Innovations as District Attorney

In October, 1990, Hynes initiated the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Program (DTAP) on the premise that drug-addicted defendants would return to society in a better position to resist drugs and crime after treatment than if they had spent a comparable time in prison at nearly twice the cost. DTAP is available for nonviolent predicate felons with a history of drug addiction and has been held up as a model for similar prosecution based drug treatment programs across the country.

In 1999 Mr. Hynes created "the ComALERT (Community And Law Enforcement Resources Together) public safety program which supports individuals on probation or parole as they re-enter their Brooklyn communities. The program was validated by a Harvard University study which found it reduced recidivism by more than half."

Hynes is credited with establishing one of the most comprehensive-and first-countywide programs designed specifically to address domestic abuse as a criminal issue, and with the collaboration of former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani implemented a citywide program to monitor convicted domestic violence offenders.

In 2005, in partnership with New York City and the state court system, he opened the first Family Justice Center in New York State, an all-in-one facility where domestic violence victims can meet with prosecutors, counselors, civil attorneys and clergy members, and get help changing their locks, finding new housing, handling custody issues and a wide range of related problems, all in their native languages.

Election Campaigns and Challengers

In 2005, Hynes narrowly beat a primary challenge from State Senator John L. Sampson who won 37 percent of the vote to Hynes' 41 percent. Mark G. Peters, a former senior official in the state attorney general's office, got 15 percent of the votes and Arnold Kriss, a former assistant district attorney in Brooklyn and a former deputy police commissioner, received 7 percent. The race had attracted considerable attention because Mr. Hynes, a fixture in Brooklyn politics, was seen as vulnerable after four terms in office.

In 2009, Hynes was unopposed.

In 2013 Hynes faces a challenge from Abraham George, an eight-year veteran of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. George says that Hynes' conduct has been "about politics and not justice," citing the recent flurry of criticism surrounding the district attorney's investigation of sexual abuse in Orthodox Jewish communities. George also said the office under Hynes has focused too much on non-violent crimes, especially those related to marijuana.

Kenneth P. Thompson, registered with the New York State Board of Elections and said in an interview that he intended to run for Brooklyn district attorney, a move that would expand the field running against Charles J. Hynes, a longtime incumbent whose hold on the office has weakened amid mounting criticism. Mr. Thompson, who already has the backing of some influential figures in the borough, said he was entering the race chiefly to help “get the guns off the streets in Brooklyn.”

The New York Times reports that the three-way race poses a threat to Mr. Hynes. In the Democratic primary in 2005, when Mr. Hynes had four opponents, he won with 41 percent of the vote, 4 percent more than John L. Sampson, a state senator from Brooklyn. In the previous primary, an obscure candidate, Sandra E. Roper, mounted an unexpectedly strong challenge against Mr. Hynes. The Times writes that while Mr. Hynes has been in office more than 20 years, he has recently come under fire for failing to investigate sexual abuse claims in ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities and for his office’s mishandling of cases that sent innocent people to prison.

Prosecution of Politicians, Elected Judges and Political Opponents

John Phillips, an aged former civil court judge whose name had been floated as a possible contender against Mr. Hynes, was found to be incompetent after Mr. Hynes began an investigation into whether he was the victim of a crime.

Another critic of Mr. Hynes, John O'Hara, a Brooklyn lawyer who was tried by Mr. Hynes' office three times for voting fraud, had encouraged both Mr. Phillips and Ms. Roper to run against Mr. Hynes. He was convicted of illegal voting in New York State, the first such conviction since Susan B. Anthony was convicted for voting (before women had the right to vote) in 1872, and was sentenced to 1,500 hours of community service, five years of probation and a $20,000 fine. A NY Daily News editorial titled "Pardon him, governor: Brooklyn victim of political persecution should be exonerated" opined "It is beyond doubt that O'Hara was the victim of a criminal justice vendetta ginned up by enemies in the Brooklyn Democratic Party… At heart, the case was an example of selective and overzealous prosecution. In a scathing criticism of DA Hynes, a state judicial committee ruled that O’Hara, the only man ever convicted in New York for voting in the wrong election district, was the victim of an unjustified, politically motivated prosecution because of his support for Hynes opponents a decade ago. The final report by the 25-member Committee on Character and Fitness, whose finding was unanimously approved by the state Supreme Court’s Appellate Division determined that, “Mr. O’Hara, accurately it appears, claims that the [Hynes’s political] machine went gunning for him and pounced on his change of residency calling it election fraud.”

Sandra Roper, who had previously run against Hynes in 2001, was brought up on felony theft charges by a special prosecutor. Hynes’ office had received a complaint that Roper stole about $9,000 from a client and then lied about it to the state grievance committee. Hynes immediately recused himself from the case, and Maranda Fritz was appointed as special prosecutor. After a mistrial in 2004 due to a hung jury, the case was eventually dismissed in 2005 after Roper repaid the former client about $9,000. Roper then sued Hynes for allegedly acting improperly with regard to the criminal case against her. However, in 2006, a federal judge threw out the suit and ruled that Roper’s allegation was unsubstantiated.

One of the most high-profile cases pursued by Hynes to date has been his prosecution of former assemblyman and Kings County Democratic Party chief Clarence Norman, Jr. After trial under four separate indictments, Norman was acquitted once and convicted three times on felony charges, including grand larceny and extortion.

In addition to Norman, Hynes has successfully prosecuted and secured the convictions of two judges for taking bribes. Former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Victor Barron was sentenced to three to nine years in prison for soliciting a bribe, and former Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gerald Garson was sentenced to three to ten years in prison for accepting gifts and money from an attorney, in exchange for favorable treatment in Garson’s courtroom.

Controversy Over ultra-Orthodox Child Sex Abuse Cases

Hynes has been harshly criticized for his handling of child sexual abuse within Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, whose votes are crucial to his re-election.

On January 22 2013, Hynes announced the 103 year sentencing of Hassidic Jew Nechemya Weberman. Weberman was convicted a month earlier of molesting a 12 year old girl he was counseling. A few days prior to the conviction Hynes compared the Hasidim to organized crime groups and wrote “I compare it to the Mafia, but at least in Mafia cases we can offer victims witness protection. That does not work in these insular communities,”. Two weeks later on February 7 2013, Hynes announced the 55 years sentencing of the principal of a Jewish religious school Emanuel Yegutkin. Yegutkin was convicted of abusing three brothers at their home over the course of a decade.

This came after the New York Jewish Week labeled Hynes "The Reluctant DA" in a November, 2008 award winning editorial written by Larry Cohler Esses, then editor at large. “For several years Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has been treating the issue of child sexual abuse in certain Jewish communities with a stance ranging from passive to weak-willed,” read the editorial. “Victims brave enough to contemplate going to the authorities — with its attendant social costs — are left wondering if their information will be acted on seriously if they come forward.” several other cases during Hynes' tenure have been both high profile and controversial. One such case was the 2008 case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with sexual molestation, but later entering a plea bargain agreement for a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. Rabbi Kolko was sentenced to three years probation and counseling but was not required to register as a sex offender.

Hynes has created a program called Kol Tzedek (Voice of Justice), aimed at Brooklyn's ultra-Orthodox Jewish community which encourages victims of sexual abuse in that community to come forward to law enforcement but his varied claims of successful prosecutions through this program have been repeatedly challenged. On November 11, 2011, the Jewish Daily Forward reported that Hynes claims to have arrested 89 men on child sex-abuse charges in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn since 2009 but declined to provide any details. Mr. Hynes has been accused of "Cooking the Numbers" and using the program to disseminate misinformation about his track record with prosecuting child sex abuse within these politically powerful communities.

Hynes’ competence or political will in pursuing allegations of wrongdoing involving prominent institutions and individuals in Brooklyn’s Orthodox Jewish community is also reportedly questioned by sexual abuse survivors and their advocates. They charge that Hynes fears political retaliation from the powerful rabbinic leaders and their bloc-voting Orthodox voters. Hynes denies this. Among the controversial high profile cases arosing these questions was the 2008 case of Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, a Brooklyn yeshiva teacher charged with sexual molestation in 2006, but later entering a plea bargain agreement for a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of a child. Kolko was sentenced to three years probation and counseling.

Agudath Israel of America

In an article titled "For Ultra-Orthodox in Abuse Cases, Prosecutor Has Different Rules" the New York Times reports that Rabbi David Zwiebel, Executive Vice President of Agudath Israel of America, "came last summer to the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes, with a message: his ultra-Orthodox advocacy group was instructing adherent Jews that they could report allegations of child sexual abuse to district attorneys or the police only if a rabbi first determined that the suspicions were credible." "The pronouncement was a blunt challenge to Mr. Hynes’s authority. But the district attorney “expressed no opposition or objection,” the rabbi, Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, recalled." The Times article continues: "In fact, when Mr. Hynes held a Hanukkah party at his office in December, he invited many ultra-Orthodox rabbis affiliated with the advocacy group, Agudath Israel of America. He even chose Rabbi Zwiebel, the group’s executive vice president, as keynote speaker at the party."

Former Mayor Ed Koch Calls for Governor to Appoint Special Prosecutor

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch wrote that unless District Attorney Hynes announces that he will release the names of all defendants, including those of ultra orthodox Jews charged with child abuse, sexual or otherwise, and will pursue criminally anyone who engages in obstruction of justice, advising someone not to assist the police in their investigation of a child abuse incident, the governor should supersede him in these cases and appoint a special prosecutor to handle them.

Allegations of Prosecutorial Misconduct & Wrongful Convictions

Hynes has also been dogged by charges of prosecutorial misconduct and is facing lawsuits from several wrongfully convicted men. In a cover article titled "Brooklyn Deserves a New D.A." the Village Voice reported that U.S. District Judge Frederic Block sharply criticized Hynes's: "I'm disturbed by Hynes's behavior," he added. "This is horrific behavior on the part of [Michael] Vecchione [Hynes' head of the Brooklyn Rackets Bureau]." "All of this is going to be uncovered," Block replied. "I kid you not. . . . I'm just puzzled why the district attorney did not take any action against Vecchione," he said. "To the contrary. He seems to ignore everything that happened. And an innocent man has been in jail for 16 years." The New York Times reported that Judge Dora L. Irizarry, of the United States District Court in Brooklyn, went on the record stating “It is indeed beyond disappointing, it is really sad that the district attorney’s office persists in standing firm and saying that it did nothing wrong...,” the judge said. She described the district attorney’s office as “shameful.”.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes sent the Village Voice a lengthy letter in response to its story about his reign as Brooklyn District Attorney concluding it was "highly biased journalism" and "totally one-sided."

On January 16, 2013 Brooklyn Federal Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis, calling the case "rotten from day one" tossed out the conviction of a Brooklyn man, William Lopez, who has spent 23 years in prison for the murder of a local drug dealer, ruling that the trial prosecutor was “overzealous and deceitful" and that “The prosecution’s evidence was flimsy to begin with, and has since been reduced to rubble by facts arising after trial.” According to the New York Times, "a spokesman for Charles J. Hynes...declined to comment in detail." Judge Garaufis’s opinion, described in detail a case that first went awry because of bad witness testimony. The prosecution relied on two witnesses one was Daisy Flores Lopez, who worked as a courier at the crack house. She testified that the gunman was a “tall, dark, black man” about six feet three inches in height. In one hearing, which was conducted outside the presence of the jury, a prosecutor asked Ms. Flores Lopez to look around the courtroom and identify the gunman. She said she did not see him, even though the man she had accused, Mr. Lopez, was sitting at the defense table. The other witness, Janet Chapman, an unemployed woman with a $200-a-day habit who lived in the basement of the crack house, had just finished a drug binge when the killing occurred; she said she saw Mr. Lopez kill Mr. Surria. It was later revealed that Ms. Chapman had discussed a cooperation agreement with the prosecution, under which she would testify in exchange for a reduced sentence on a drug charge. Years later, Ms. Chapman recanted her testimony, writing in an affidavit, “I attended William Lopez’s trial and testified against him when I knew my every word was pure fabrication.” She continued, “The district attorney told me never to tell anyone that we cut a deal about my testimony, in exchange for my freedom.”

In a Memorandum and Order issued on February 15, 2013, Judge Frederic Block of United States District Court in Brooklyn ruled that Jabbar Collins, who was incarcerated for 16 years for a now-vacated murder conviction can proceed with his lawsuit against the city based upon claims that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes and the NYPD were "deliberately indifferent" to the misconduct that secured his conviction. The New York Times reported that in his opinion denying the city’s request to throw out the case Judge Block pointed to significant misconduct by both the police and prosecutors. “The court concludes that Collins’s allegations regarding Hynes’s response — or lack thereof — to misconduct by Vecchione and other assistants make plausible his theory that Hynes was so deliberately indifferent to the underhanded tactics that his subordinates employed as to effectively encourage them to do so,” Judge Block wrote in the opinion. According to the NY Times Judge Block scheduled an April trial for Mr. Collins’s lawsuit, making it probable that testimony against Mr. Hynes and his office could come out in the middle of what promises to be a heated reelection campaign for Hynes. He faces two well-financed opponents in the Democratic primary, Kenneth P. Thompson, a lawyer in private practice, and Abe George, a former prosecutor in Manhattan. A lawyer for Mr. Collins, Joel B. Rudin, said in a statement that he planned to take depositions of Mr. Hynes, Mr. Vecchione and other prosecutors. The New York Law Journal reported that Judge Block declined to dismiss civil rights claims against the city by Jabbar Collins because he said Collins had adequately pleaded allegations against the municipality in Collins v. The City of New York, 11-CV-766. However, the judge "reluctantly" dismissed claims against the prosecutor who tried Collins, Assistant District Attorney Michael Vecchione, saying that he was shielded by absolute prosecutorial immunity. Collins alleged in his $150 million suit that Vecchione—now the bureau chief of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Rackets Division—fabricated evidence and did not reveal a witness' recantation, among other things. Hynes is not a defendant in the suit but has praised Vecchione and defended his conduct in the Collins case. Block observed that, at this stage of the litigation, Collins was entitled to argue that Hynes' support of Vecchione reflected a "tacit" policy to condone any actions his subordinates thought necessary to achieve a conviction. "The Court concludes that Collins's allegations regarding Hynes's response—or lack thereof—to misconduct by Vecchione and other assistants make plausible his theory that Hynes was so deliberately indifferent to the underhanded tactics that his subordinates employed as to effectively encourage them to do so," Block said.

External links

• Brooklyn DA's web site